New Parking Pass Procedure

For the first time in Penn Manor history, the Penn Manor School District is charging high school students twice a year for their parking passes to use a spot in the school parking area.

In the past year, parking passes cost $20 to use the parking area for the entire school year-unless they were revoked for poor attendance or misconduct in school.

Starting this year, students will be forced to buy two parking passes, one for the first semester and another for the second. What’s interesting is that the school district didn’t cut the cost for having to pay twice.

"Mercedes" Photo by Robert Henry.

Instead of $10 a pass per semester, the district has decided to make the cost for the passes $20 a semester. Although the school provides a safe parking area for students to park their vehicles.

It has come as a surprise to students, especially in the economic times that our society is in today.

Some students are very upset about the new system for the parking passes.

Ryan Wissler said, “it’s freaking outrageous.”

Vaughn Stetler and Jenna Reel also had the same opinion as Wissler towards the parking passes, agreeing that it is absurd to be doubling the cost for a year of parking at the high school.

Where does all of the money go for the parking passes?

Since the increase in cost for this year, students could be wondering where the extra money is going. If the high school’s 300 parking spots in the parking area were rented-the gross income of the venture would be $12,000 dollars, twice as much as was raised in previous years.

School resource officer Jason Hottenstein said he thinks the control of parking passes is a good way check up on students’ grades and attendance.

Now, school officials can simply check a student’s behavior before the parking pass is distributed at the beginning of the second semester, thus decreasing the amount of parking pass revocations and making it easier for school officials to keep track of students that are worthy of the parking passes, said an administration member.

Another official reason for the distribution of parking passes twice a year is to allow students who just got their license to have the opportunity to purchase a space.

Also, students that are on spring sports teams in the past were not able to get parking passes due to the cluster of students that had already gotten their parking passes.

By Patrick Miller

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Comments

I support the administrative position that all obligations need to be paid before receiving a parking pass. A parking pass is a privilege and students who have financial obligations to the school should have to take care of those before receiving a pass. If you can afford $20 to park, you can afford to pay off your obligation.

I do not support the decision to charge students an additional $20 for the second semester. The so called “official reasons” behind the extra money are ludicrous and irrelevant to the additional $6000…which students don’t even know where it is going to. If the “official reason” behind the second semester charge is to monitor students behavior and make it fair then why not just charge $10 per semester. In such tight economic times (where more often than not, students pay themselves for anything car related) it is nothing short of obnoxious. I feel like I am wasting money on something where I don’t even know the profits are going to. I earn straight A’s AND keep on top of my obligations, why do I have to suffer the consequences….